Surgical lasers are used with increasing frequency for the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). In recent years, surgical procedures utilizing lasers are gaining status as a preferred surgical procedure for the long-term relief of BPH from the perspective of both urologists and patients. Laser prostate procedures have been touted as the first procedure ever to achieve comparable durability to transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), the accepted standard of care in this field, and with a lower incidence of complications compared with TURP. However, a significant percentage of physicians prefer more traditional surgical procedures over laser procedure treatments due to negative patient outcomes, prolonged procedure times, and general dissatisfaction with the procedure.
Much of the dissatisfaction with the laser procedure stems from the complexity of the surgical techniques used, as well as the multitude of tasks that must be performed simultaneously by the physician while performing the laser procedure. During this procedure, the physician must execute numerous movements simultaneously, including depressing a foot-pedal to activate the laser with one foot, manipulating the cystoscope with one hand to position a distal tip of the laser fiber to within a few millimeters of target tissue, and rotating a control knob with the other hand to sweep the laser fiber back and forth at a constant speed as well as to insert or retract the distal tip of the laser fiber and/or cystoscope assembly within the surgical site. In addition, the urologist must also monitor numerous other factors such as the patient's vital signs, the video display of the distal tip of the laser fiber in the surgical site, the adjustment of the inflow and the outflow of the irrigation fluid to/from the surgical site, and the laser power commanded from the laser source. As a result, laser procedures are accompanied by a steep learning curve for some urologists in which the initial procedures conducted by the urologists adopting this technique may potentially incur a higher risk of negative outcomes or complications.
A need exists in the art for a laser surgical device designed to reduce the multi-tasking of a physician performing a laser surgical procedure, as well as to introduce reliable and repeatable movements of the laser fiber which will optimize patient outcomes and increase urologist satisfaction.